A small field didn’t enjoy the best playing conditions. The rain of the last couple of days rendered the course really muddy. That mud, thicker air and changing winds reduced the carry on numerous holes. On top of that the greens were too wet to get cut. So judging the pace of the greens was delicate too.

The early starters take (most of) the honours today. Joe recorded a timely birdie on the 18th. That enabled him to record 20pts on the back 9. Add that to 19pts on the front 9 and you get today’s winning score. Ross, another early starter, had a solid front 9 (20pts). But an ugly bogey on the 18th prevented him from leapfrogging Joe. Pralab put together a solid round to claim 3rd (good thing the score of his 1st round was upheld – more on that later). PaulG is the last to earn some credits. Mayumi is first lady today. Believe that Peter Goodall managed the feat of recording more birdies than pars today …

Aggregate MW Spring Stableford

Pralab was the most consistent of the field over 2 rounds. 37pts today and 38pts last week make the winning score. Kim lost the plot over 4 holes on the back 9 and finishes 2nd. 

British Summer Time commenced in good British fashion with rain for much of the morning reducing the field quite considerably

Women

The second week of the Women’s Spring Meeting is traditionally a 4BBB event. Today was no exception and most of the field on the start sheet duly turned up on a day when we’d lost an hour of sleep and were scheduled out earlier than usual…Very impressive!! As was the decision of everyone to abandon the event but go ahead with early refreshments and prize giving – though chips at 9.00 didn’t somehow seem appropriate.

Prizes for the winter eclectics, monthly team events and last week’s stableford event were handed out to the winners and all present were given a waterproof marker pen as a gift for turning up and to ensure they have something to mark their balls with during the summer.

Men

Persistent rain greeted players for British Summer Time, reducing numbers for 2nd round of Spring Stableford.

In the senior division Pete Malla off HI15 again shot an excellent 41 points (22 out, 19 back); 6 ahead of Joe 35 with Tamas 34.

The early clubhouse leader was Cuneyt in junior division 37 points but he was joined by eventual winner on countback Ian B. Paul R and Martin H followed with 34s

The aggregate over 2 rounds shows winner of R1 & R2 Pete Malla winner of senior division from Toby 70 and Tamas 69. In the junior, Cuneyt held on to win scoring 69 from Ian B and Alan K 68s.

The weather forecast was pretty much spot on and the early starters had the best of the day. Morning sunshine gave way to heavy rain showers blown through on a strong south-westerly wind. After about 2 hours rain, rounds finished in the dry (just about), with dark stormy skies of rain, hail and thunder all around.

Last-minute entrant Cuneyt Sazer stole the day with a stunning 43 points, 22 out and 21 in, in fact he had 29 points after the first 11 holes. Consistent throughout but his one-putting from distance on 5 or 6 holes was the backbone to his score – a priviledge to behold. Rannesh (37 points) came 2nd with birdies on the first 2 holes and an unlikely ‘blob’ on the 18th. Pralab had the best of the weather and probably finished before it even started to rain, his 35 points makes him 3rd and last of the sweep winners.

Payout £9, £5, £3

Conditions were fairly tricky. The field experienced little roll on the fairways and receptive greens. There was also quite a bit of casual water. And it looks like swirling winds became stronger during the course of the day. The early starters must have faced the occasional drizzle. Based on the scoring the late starters fared better in today’s conditions.

Richard N and Pralab were among the late starters. But both of them had solid rounds. Richard N’s back 9 was excellent (22pts). That score enabled him to squeeze out today’s win. Yours truly’s round was the mirror image of RN: 22pts (front 9) and 17pts (back 9). He had a huge slice of good luck on the 10th. But that was offset by a freak incident with the pin on the 16th. His bogey putt hit the bottom of the pin and bounced straight back to him. Russell had 3 birdies on the front 9 to take 4th place. Ian and Stephen complete the Top6. First lady/woman today is Gina.

All to play for in Round 2 next week.

Much of the course had returned to muddy conditions with some fairways wetter than they have been all winter – who knew it had rained that much!

Women

A day of mixed fortunes out there but as is so often the case, it was tight at the top. Despite Pat bemoaning the conditions at the Park compared to her recent games in Mauritius, she played her usual steady game just losing out on the back 9 to Jenny who takes 1st spot today. Both had 34 points and they’ve paired up for next week’s 4BBB so the rest might need a bit of practice before then . Bridget’s comments during the round belied her score of 33 points putting her in 3rd place

Prizes for today will be handed out next Sunday after golf at the Spring Meeting get together. In addition to 1st &2nd there will be front & back 9 prizes which go to Gina & Sheena respectively. All very close and both were down to back 6 once Jenny & Pat were taken out.

Men

Overnight rain cleared but coupled with previous rain the course was muddy generally with lying water in parts.

The senior division produced some good golf with 40 points from Pete Malla (parring all par 3s) to win fromToby who in tun pipped Uli on countback with 40 points. Peter N followed 4th 39 points.


The junior division was won by Midweek Winter comp champion Alan King 36 from Giovanni 34. Next on 32 were Rannesh, Cuneyt and Duncan with 32s.


It was a game of 2 halves for some players – Jim Deissler and Richard Smith 23 points back 9.

The first few holes were played in a very light misty rain, then we had over 2 hours of serious rain, and at about 1pm the sun came out, although by then there were puddles on fairways, paths and some of the early greens – a typical early Spring day at Richmond Park.

Five teams competed in the Texas Scramble competition, all teams scored well and the result was very close, with only 3 stableford points separating all 5 teams.

Top spot, on a 49 points countback, was the team of Jayne Maxwell, Susan Smith, Brian Ransom and Cuneyt Sazer. They had a total of 6 birdies, including a stretch of 3 consecutive birdies on the 15th, 16th and 17th, and just one bogey (on the 8th). Apparently Cuneyt really found his touch with the putter, which wasn’t behaving for him 2 days earlier on Duke’s.

Also with 49 points, in 2nd place, was the team of Cheryl Woodhouse, Uli katte, James Deissler and Seymour Laird, who had 4 birdies and no bogeys, but a weaker back 9 than the winning team.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the format and sweep payout to the winning team (£4.50 each).

Spring golf is edging closer but the field still faced swirling winds and chilly temperatures. At least the fairways offered occasional roll, but once off line you did run the risk of a plugged lie.

Run away winner today is Richard Marriott. Despite a blip on the 6th he recorded an outstanding score of 64 (Net). A duo finished 4 shots back. Leader in the clubhouse Joe posted an excellent 79 (gross – 68 Net). He was matched by his playing partner Darren. But Joe had the better back 9 (Darren’s back 9 was quite volatile).  Another duo finishes on 69 (Net). Richard Owen and Alex Braun claim the last of the payouts. First woman of the day is early bird Gina. Lowest gross score was posted by Jay, A word of sympathy for our Gordon Foster Captain Uli. He was humming along nicely. But disaster struck on the 14th.  He had a bit of good fortune finding his tee-shot. But his conservative approach to get his ball back into play backfired. Out of sympathy the report will not mention his score on that hole.

Below see Best Score Analysis and Competition Scoring Analysis (looks like our “Amen Corner” lived up to its reputation again).

A pleasant Spring day with some sunshine and temperature nudging 14C for the 3/4 player team Waltz where where best stableford points scored best 1 1st hole then best 2 2nd then 3 third and so on.

The team of Richard Inglis, Justin Wildman, Will Balakrishnan, Kevin Prendergast came out on top with 86 points – 44 on the back 9
Runners-up a point behind on 85 were Kerry Sargeant, Toby Hunt, Justin Bradford, Alan King
– 43 out and 42 back with a very useful 10 points on 18th.